


the things we say in the dark

by besidemethewholedamntime



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Midnight Conversations, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Softness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-14 06:53:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28791288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/besidemethewholedamntime/pseuds/besidemethewholedamntime
Summary: “We’ve done alright, haven’t we?”The words are spoken quietly into his shoulder, and the vibration of them against his skin wakes him up from that half-dream state he was resting in. he glances at the bedside clock: 01:23. Just the right time for words such as this.“What do you mean?” He asks, unsticking his tongue from the roof of his mouth. Turning to face her, he finds Bobbi’s hair glows, illuminated from the street lamp outside their bedroom window. A brilliant orange, tempered flame He twirls a strand around his fingers and half expects it to burn.Bobbi wonders if they've done alright. Soft Huntingbird conversations in the middle of the night when they're on the run.
Relationships: Lance Hunter/Bobbi Morse
Comments: 8
Kudos: 20





	the things we say in the dark

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MayBeBrilliant](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayBeBrilliant/gifts).



> Happy Birthday, May! You are one of the loveliest beans and I hope you're managing to have such a brilliant birthday despite the whole world seemingly being against having a good time. You are so kind and sweet and talented and it is a joy to see and speak with you. Thank you for being you!
> 
> This is just some soft Huntingbird set when they're on the run. I hope you like it!

“We’ve done alright, haven’t we?”

The words are spoken quietly into his shoulder, and the vibration of them against his skin wakes him up from that half-dream state he was resting in. he glances at the bedside clock: _01:23._ Just the right time for words such as this.

“What do you mean?” He asks, unsticking his tongue from the roof of his mouth. Turning to face her, he finds Bobbi’s hair glows, illuminated from the street lamp outside their bedroom window. A brilliant orange, tempered flame He twirls a strand around his fingers and half expects it to burn.

“I just… I’m worried that we’ve wasted it, you know? That we haven’t done anything meaningful in our lives.”

“We were SHIELD agents, Bob. I’d say that was pretty bloody meaningful.”

She sighs, and he can tell it’s not what she wanted to hear. He sits up on one elbow, blinking away the sleep from his eyes. This insecurity is unlike her, and he wonders if this is what she’s been lying awake with whilst he’s been half-asleep in some dream. He wonders if it’s been like this for a while.

“Did we do any good there, though? Did we just make it worse?” She blows a breath out through funnelled lips, staring up at the ceiling. “I mean it felt like every time we saved someone, every time we won, we just lost again. There was always another monster.” She turns to him, eyes shining, and he feels his heart seize. “You know?”

“That’s the nature of it though, isn’t it?” He looks at her, open and honest, something he’s trying to be better at lately. “There’s always someone else. It’d be like that no matter what you did.”

“Yeah, but with SHIELD it’s usually there’s always another end of the world,” she says with a roll of her eyes. Bloody hell, he loves it when she rolls her eyes. He wants to kick himself that he ever thought he hated it. “That’s not gonna be the same.”

“No, it’s not,” he allows, slowly. “But it wasn’t up to us to save the world forever, love. We just had to hold off the end long enough so the next lot could take over and do the same.”

She chews her bottom lip. There was once a time when she never would have let him see that, see this tell of hers that means she’s in doubt. There’s a furrow in her forehead and he suddenly has an urge to smooth it out with his thumb, to smooth away everything that’s ever worried or upset her. He has an urge to take away all her fears, to take them out of her head and put them in his own. To say _I’ve got this, Bob. You go to sleep and I’ll keep watch. I won’t let the nightmares get you tonight._

But he doesn’t say this. Can’t say this. If he did then she’d probably throw him out of bed and he’s comfy here. The hell-beast is good to share a bed with. Besides, he feels safe with her, in a way that he’s never felt with anybody else.

“I know that. I’m not-” She sighs. “I’m not deluding myself, Hunter, I know the deal we signed up for.” She cuts him a look. “What _I_ signed up for. It’s just… I’m just wondering if we did alright, if we did _enough_.”

“Bob,” he says, smiling a little unbelievably. “Are you asking me if we saved the world _enough_?”

She looks at him a long moment before laughing, her eyes glassy. “Yeah,” she laughs again. “Yeah, I guess I am.”

“You’re a right head case, you know that?” He scoffs tenderly. “Only you would ask a thing like that.”

She smiles briefly but honestly. For a second her whole face lights up and he’s reminded of the moment he met her. She’d been scowling then at something stupid he’d said, but there was a part of him that knew right there and then that the moment would come and he’d be willing to die for her, without second-thought or question.

They’re crazy and chaotic and at times downright destructive, but then that’s love, isn’t it? To be willing to tear your own heart out and give it to another, mangled and bloody though it may be. It’s not neat and clean, and sometimes he thinks that, if it were, it wouldn’t be for them.

“It’s not about ego, Hunter,” she says softly. “I don’t think that we’re special or anything, that we were the only ones who could do what we did.”

He rubs a hand up and down her arm gently, unable to look at her for a minute. “I know you don’t.” Maybe they’re not the only ones who could’ve saved the world, but she’s the only one who’d be here with him like this. She’s the only one that could love him the way she does.

She says nothing and he moves his hand to cup her cheek, thumb gently grazing over the skin. “What’s brought this on, hm? Not like you to be questioning what we’ve done.”

She exhales greatly, sinking deeper into the bed. He sinks with her, would sink with her until the end of time. It’s a long moment before she answers, and before she does he feels something warm and wet on his thumb, and he knows that if he were to touch it to his lips it would taste as salty as the sea.

“It was my whole life,” she whispers quietly, as though it’s something been tucked away in her heart for so long that she doesn’t know how to let it out, how to let it go. “That was my whole life and now, without it, I’m worried I don’t know who I am.”

Oh, his heart seizes in his chest and for a moment it’s like the world stops turning. He could tell her a number of things, could say everything that he loves about her from here until the infinite but he can’t, because these are words that are tucked away in his heart, too, and he doesn’t know how to let it out either.

Instead, he shuffles even closer to her, presses his forehead to hers, and whispers the only thing he can, never removing his hand from her cheek.

“You’ve got me,” he says into the very small space between them. He means _I will always let you know who you are. You have me to remind you, Bob. I won’t let you forget, alright? I’ll never let you forget._ “No matter what, you’ve got me.”

Her eyes are closed and there’s a long moment before she nods against him, but he feels it. She knows. She understands. She loves him as he loves her. It’s going to be alright.

“C’mere,” he says softly, and Bobbi shifts until her head is resting on his chest. He rests his chin on her head in return and breathes in deeply. The soft weight of her against him is all that keeps him from floating away.

“Was it alright?”

She murmurs into his skin, a final question barring her way to sleep, and he shivers even though her breath is warm.

“You never need to worry about that, love,” he whispers into her hair, holding her tightly. “We did alright. I promise you, we did alright.”

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Birthday, May!!
> 
> Thank you so much for reading! Please feel free to leave kudos/comments. Please feel free not to. Either way, I hope you have a lovely day and are managing to stay safe and well in this crazy world <3


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